Artificial intelligence continues to transform recruiting and staffing, offering new ways to source, screen, and engage candidates faster and more effectively. Three industry leaders shared how they’ve adopted AI to address specific hiring challenges, from automating interviews to expanding sourcing reach to filtering out spam applicants, and the results they’ve seen so far. 

This is the second showcase in the AI in Action series. You can read the highlights of the first showcase here.

Alex: Interview Automation for Faster, Smarter Screening 

When Mariah Szarek, Director of Recruiting at Benchmark IT, began looking for a new solution, her team faced two common challenges: managing high applicant volume and preserving time for high-value recruiting activities. She explains that the goal was to “allow our recruiters to have more time in the day for high-impact activities,” and Alex, an AI-powered interview automation platform, provided exactly that. 

The system conducts initial video screenings, evaluates responses, and feeds results directly into their ATS. It automatically schedules and runs interviews, allowing recruiters to focus on top candidates without lengthy back-and-forth scheduling. Szarek describes it as “very customizable but also smart enough to give a great baseline,” noting that the platform generates relevant questions they can adjust to suit each role. 

Her team uses Alex to set specific skill weightings, filter out candidates who don’t meet dealbreaker requirements, and even collect feedback on the interview experience, which she says has been “overwhelmingly positive.” The payoff has been clear: calls with high-scoring candidates now take ten minutes instead of thirty, and placements are happening faster. “Overall, it’s saving us time,” Szarek says, “and we’ve already had placements happen faster because of it.” 

HireEZ: Expanding Sourcing Beyond LinkedIn 

David Berthiaume, Resource Manager at Solutia Consulting, turned to HireEZ as an alternative to LinkedIn Recruiter, seeking both cost savings and broader reach. “I wanted something that didn’t cost as much as LinkedIn Recruiter but still gave me powerful sourcing capabilities,” he says, noting that HireEZ comes in at roughly one-fifth of the price. 

The platform aggregates profiles from multiple sources including LinkedIn, Facebook, GitHub, CareerBuilder, and others, and allows recruiters to apply precise filters for skills, location, industry, years of experience, and even likelihood of being open to new opportunities. Berthiaume appreciates its built-in automated outreach but has found that customizing messages is key. “Refining the messaging with my own language makes a huge difference in response rates,” he says. 

By pulling from multiple networks instead of relying solely on LinkedIn, HireEZ helps Solutia connect with candidates they might otherwise miss. “One of the biggest advantages is that it searches beyond LinkedIn, pulling in profiles from other platforms,” Berthiaume explains. For roles requiring niche skills or when building talent pipelines for the future, that broader reach has proven invaluable. 

Boostie: Filtering Bots and Building Candidate Pipelines 

While many AI tools focus on sourcing or assessment, Nick Nordin, VP of Recruiting at BridgeView IT, wanted something that would save his recruiters’ time before they even engaged a candidate. “Boostie makes it easier for candidates to apply to our postings while screening out bots and unqualified applicants before they reach the recruiters,” he explains. 

Boostie integrates with the ATS and acts as a top-of-funnel filter, intercepting applications from multiple sources including LinkedIn, job boards, and email campaigns. It uses prescreening questions to remove candidates who don’t meet key requirements, flags suspicious IP locations, and automatically filters out spam. For Nordin, this has been a major time saver. “The bot filtering is a game changer. On LinkedIn, 90% of the first-hour responses can be spam, and now my team doesn’t have to waste time sifting through them,” he says. 

Beyond screening, Boostie has become a tool for re-engaging past candidates. Nordin’s team uses it to reach out to people in their database including former placements and silver-medalist candidates with targeted campaigns. The results have been strong. “We’ve used it to re-engage passive candidates in our database, even people we placed years ago, and the response rates have been impressive,” Nordin says. 

Key Takeaways for Staffing Leaders 

Each of these tools addresses a different part of the hiring process, but together they show how AI can remove bottlenecks and help recruiters focus on the most impactful work: 

Automate without losing control: Alex streamlines interviews while allowing full customization. Expand your reach: HireEZ opens access to candidate pools beyond a single platform. Protect recruiter time: Boostie filters spam and unqualified applicants before they ever reach the team. 

For staffing firms, the lesson is clear. AI doesn’t replace recruiters. It frees them to build relationships, advise clients, and make better hiring decisions. 

TechServe members can view this showcase here, as well as the first showcase in the series, here.

If you have an AI tool you’d like to showcase, or a tool you’d like to learn more about in a future session, we’d love to hear from you – please email [email protected].